Growing Fidget Spinners Risk to Children
>Move over hoverboards — electric fidget spinners are the latest toy to start exploding
June 29, 2017, Sacramento Bee
The fidget spinner craze that has swept through the U.S. in recent months has reached its inevitable conclusion: The tri-pronged little toys have began erupting in flames. There have been two recently documented cases of exploding fidget spinners. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is now investigating.
>Fidget Spinner Explosions Threaten Consumer Safety, Bluetooth Based Models Might Be A Hazard
June 30, 2017, International Business Times
A family in Gardendale, Alabama, told WRBC on Tuesday their Bluetooth enabled fidget spinner burst into flames while charging. Kimberly Allums heard her son screaming and found his fidget spinner had caught fire. The incident has exposed how fidget spinners, considered a toy for children, might actually be a fire hazard.
CPSC press conference on the Washington Mall demonstrates fireworks hazards
July, 2017, cpsc.gov
The Consumer Product Safety Commission maintains a Fireworks Information Center at its cpsc.gov website. Its goal is to remind consumers about the danger of fireworks, causing serious burn and eye injuries, and what can be done to help prevent injuries.
How appliances catch fire
June 24, 2017, Consumer Reports
A Hotpoint refrigerator is the suspected cause of what the New York Times is calling Britain’s deadliest fire in a century, the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed at least 79 people earlier this month. Fire investigators are still examining the refrigerator to see what sparked the fire. Consumer Reports analyzed appliance fires in a 2012 report, “Appliance Fires Pose a Safety Concern.” It has been noted that refrigerators run continuously, and once the electrical components catch fire, plastics in the rest of the unit provide more fuel.
Ikea dresser recall falling short, safety advocates warn
June 29, 2017, Philly.com
One year after Ikea recalled 29 million potentially unstable dressers following the deaths of seven children, safety advocates are issuing a stark warning: The recall wasn’t good enough. Only 3 percent of the dressers had been repaired or returned as of January. In a letter sent Wednesday to Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a group of advocates said Ikea hasn’t done its part to get the products out of homes or sufficiently highlighted the threat. An Ikea spokesperson said that the company has invested millions of dollars, and gone beyond what its agreement with the government required, to inform consumers about the recall.
The toy supply chain: time to take a deeper look
June 28, 2017, Industry Week
Coming off its strongest annual revenue growth in 17 years, led by an uptick in toy licensing by the entertainment sector, the $20.36 billion industry has both the means and the motivation to take the next step: addressing the safety requirements of products made by of an ever-greater supply chain complexity posing potential risks to safety and performance.
A.G. Schneiderman Leads 12-State Coalition In Opposing Regulatory Rollbacks That Would Jeopardize Americans’ Health & Safety
June 27, 2017, Long Island News
New York State’s Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, leading a coalition of 12 state Attorneys General, wrote U.S. Senate leadership expressing “strong opposition” to S. 951, the proposed Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017 (RAA), which would jeopardize the health, safety, and wellbeing of the American public. In a letter addressed to Senate leadership the coalition contends that the RAA would bring the federal regulatory process “to a grinding halt,” thereby obstructing the implementation of laws that protect Americans from toxic chemicals, predatory marketing practices, dangerous labor conditions, unsafe food and drugs, and much more.
Bamboozled: Victory close for child safety advocates after N.J. Senate vote on baby mattresses
June 27, 2017, nj.com
Child safety advocates crossed a big hurdle after a bill to ban the sale of supplemental baby mattresses passed in the New Jersey Senate Monday afternoon. The vote came down to the wire, with neither side sure of whether the bill would pass. Critics of the mattresses, which are sold separately from playpens and play yards, argued the products pose a suffocation danger to babies because an infant’s head could get stuck in between the mattress and the soft side of a playpen. Federal warning labels tell parents to only use the mattress or padding that comes with the playpen.
Japanese airbag maker Takata files for bankruptcy, gets Chinese backing
June 26, 2017, Reuters
Japan’s Takata Corporation, at the center of the auto industry’s biggest-ever product recall, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States and Japan, and said it had agreed to be largely acquired for $1.6 billion by the Chinese-owned U.S.-based Key Safety Systems. Takata faces tens of billions of dollars in costs and liabilities resulting from almost a decade of recalls and lawsuits. Its airbag inflators have been linked to at least 16 deaths and 180 injuries around the world because they can rupture and send metal fragments flying.
California to list herbicide as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight
June 27, 2017 Reuters
Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Co’s popular Roundup weed killer, will be added to California’s list of chemicals known to cause cancer effective July 7, the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) recently reported. Monsanto vowed to continue its legal fight against the designation, required under the state law known as Proposition 65, and called the decision “unwarranted on the basis of science and the law.”
Cornerstone Publishing Released the 2017 Edition of the Proposition 65 Handbook
June 30, 2017 PRWeb
The latest edition of the Proposition 65 Handbook was recently published. It expands on several topics discussed in the 2013 edition, including revised warning regulations, controversial chemical listings, and the explosive increase in litigation since 2013.
